Jimmy Panetta: “Representative Wasserman Schultz and I were in the Middle East on October 7 of this year. We were part of a…”

“Representative Wasserman Schultz and I were in the Middle East on October 7 of this year. We were part of a congressional delegation trip led by Senator Joni Ernst, and we went there to talk about peace. Unfortunately, due to the bloodthirsty attack by Hamas, we left the region talking about war. Despite the change in the tone of our trip, we became the first congressional delegation to visit Israel in the aftermath of the October 7 attack. While we were in country, though, we met with family members of victims of that attack, including David and Noam Peri, a brother and sister whose 79-year-old father, Haim Peri, was kidnapped by Hamas from his home in the Kibbutz Nir Oz, a peaceful agricultural town whose name means meadow of strength in Hebrew, a town whose 400 citizens probably could be seen prior to the attack taking to the streets to peacefully protest the prime minister's rightwing government. On the morning of October 7, that town was anything but peaceful as the Hamas attack left it smashed up and smoldering with one in four of its residents either murdered or kidnapped. That day, Hamas lived up to its definition as a genocidal terrorist organization as it attacked Israel to kill Jews, to kill the Jewish society, and to kill peace. As part of that goal, Hamas attacked Nir Oz and murdered 27 of its inhabitants and took 73 hostages to Gaza.…”